Category archive: Skills Ready

Day 142: Skills vs. Wages. It has always been assumed that the higher the skills the higher the wages. We did a little research and decided that common sense does prevail. Indeed the higher the skills, the higher the wages. Read here to find out more.Relationship Between Skills and Wages

When Ameren wanted to do some research on their service area they asked SSG to assist in gathering and presenting pertinent information about their service area. Ameren serves a big share of Illinois and Missouri. They are reviewing their growth areas and trying to identify where there future resources should be spent to better prepare…

Workforce Development for Economic Developers Part 9: Competitive Skilled Workforce Analysis How does your workforce stack up against the regions you regularly compete against for an economic development project? When comparing community and regional workforces, Smart Solutions Group conducts a competitive analysis for a cluster based on a variety of workforce factors. To give you…

Workforce Development for Economic Developers Part 8: Example of a Target Cluster Profile Based on our site selection experiences and inputs from other site consultants, Smart Solutions Group has developed a Skills Ready Profile. The Profile is a marketing document that provides information on the availability of skilled labor and the costs of labor in…

Workforce Development for Economic Developers Part 7: What Workforce Information Do Site Consultants and Businesses Executives Want? According to Area Development’s 27th Annual Survey of Business Executives and the 9th Annual Survey of Site Selection Consultants the Cost of Labor and the Availability of Skilled Labor ranked as two of the top three factors in…

Workforce Development for Economic Developers Part 6: Strategic Roadmap for Workforce Development Business executives and site consultants not only want to know if you now have the skilled labor they need but they also want to know that the skilled labor will be there in the long-term. The Strategic Roadmap is a comprehensive and…

Workforce Development for Economic Developers Part 5: Strategies for Reducing Skilled Worker Shortages There are three general areas for reducing Skilled Worker Shortages in a region: (1) Increase the skills of workers that reside in the labor market; (2) Reduce the out-migration of skilled workers; and (3) Increase In-Migration of Skilled Workers. There are many…

Workforce Development for Economic Developers Part 4: An Example of Skilled Worker Shortages To show how Smart Solutions Group estimates Skilled Workers Shortages, we will use an actual example for a multi-county region. One of the target industry clusters for this region is Advanced Manufacturing. The following is a description of the process we used…

Workforce Development for Economic Developers Part 3: Measuring Skilled Worker Shortages To measure Skilled Worker Shortages by occupation, we need to determine the demand for workers and the potential supply of new workers. To determine demand, you need a projection of the growth in the number of workers over the next five to ten years….

Workforce Development for Economic Developers Part 2: Skill Gaps and Skilled Worker Shortages In 2013 there were numerous reports and articles on Skill Gaps and Skilled Worker Shortages in the U.S. Many of the reports and articles state employers today are having difficulty finding workers with the skills the job requires and in the future…

The business of economic development encompasses a broad range of strategies including business retention and attraction, entrepreneurship, workforce development and the attraction of talent, tourism, place branding and marketing, product development, and community planning to enhance the quality of place. The bottom line - to generate new wealth and growth.